I (Ben) grew up in Carmel, IN, which is a small town just North of Indianapolis. My parents were both Purdue Alumni as were both of my father's parents. You could say that Abbie and I grew up in a Boilermaker household, spending weekends in the Fall up in West Lafayette to tailgate and attend football games. The first jersey I ever owned was a Drew Brees number 15. I tore it into pieces the day I got it playing tackle football at the tailgate. Dad offered to buy me another one but naturally they were all out of my size so I never did replace it! I grew up an athlete, making many life long friends through Soccer and Wrestling, many of which will stand beside me in our wedding.

Deanna grew up the exact opposite. She was a huge nerd as she was on the mathletes and marching band teams, played bowling, and was top 10 in GPA for her graduating class. She grew up in Frankfort, IL, which is a small suburb on the South Side of Chicago. She spent most of her childhood either attending Elvis night at the White Sox game or up at her cottage in Sister Lakes Michigan.

We both ended up attending college at Purdue, though despite being involved in very similar activities and having quite a few friends in common, never ended up crossing paths while we were there! It's probably for the best, because I don't think Deanna would have agreed to date me in college! Let's just say I spent more time making friends at Harry's Chocolate Shoppe than studying.

After college, I moved to Chicago and was introduced to Deanna through a mutual friend that we'll adoringly call Tito, though at the time I was actually dating someone else! So scandalous!! Well after some time, Deanna began to fall for me and thus began a long list of occasions that she fell in love with me. My favorite of those events would have to be when I taught Deanna how to eat an entire chicken wing in one bite on probably our third date!

The rest is history, and Deanna and I have grown in to best friends over the last 3 years. We've had many more chicken wing dates, though now we make them ourselves in the air fryer at home. We visit her cottage often with various groups of friends, attend Purdue games, go to concerts, watch movies, laugh, cry, and snuggle. Deanna loves to snuggle.